Oakland rolls over Rochester College

ROCHESTER HILLS – The difference between an NCAA Division I and a NSCAA women’s basketball team was sizable Monday night.

Sophomore forward Bethany Watterworth had 22 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists to lead the Oakland University women’s basketball team (2-3) to a runaway, 86-40 victory over Rochester College (4-3) at the Athletics Center O’Rena on Monday. The Golden Grizzlies forced 34 turnovers out of the visiting Warriors and shot 47.7 percent from the field in the win.

“Of all the times we’ve played Rochester College, this was the smartest team we’ve faced,” said head coach Beckie Francis. “It’s a tribute to our players that we never let up and we continued to execute. Although,it was tough at times to get to the line against their zone, our team was unselfish and distributed the ball well, with 25 assists on 31 made baskets. I was really proud of our team and how well we executed tonight.”

Watterworth picked up the first double-double of the season for the Golden Grizzlies, scoring 11 points in each half and also pulling in a season-high 10 boards to finish just one assist shy of a triple-double. Watterworth was 6-of-6 from the free-throw line, where she is now 23-of-24 for the season.  Junior guard Sharise Calhoun added 16 points, seven boards, four assists and three steals for Oakland which dominated the game both offensively and defensively.

Oakland’s newcomers also stepped up with career-high efforts, led by redshirt freshman Elizabeth Hamlet who scored 10 first-half points to finish with a career-high 14. True freshman Amy Carlton came off the bench to score a career-high nine points, while her classmate Zakiya Minifee turned in an OU season-best six steals. The Golden Grizzlies had 19 steals, to create a large portion of the 34 turnovers. It was the first time Oakland had earned more than 15 steals since the 2008 season.

Rochester’s Kelly Burton finished with 16 points and was the only RC player in double-digits. She hit a 3-pointer to make it 4-3 with 18:40 to play in the first half. That was as close as the Warriors would get, as OU responded with a 25-2 run over the next 10 minutes that put the game out reach. The Golden Grizzlies led 48-13 at the half after holding Rochester to just 21.7 percent shooting.

Five different players blocked a shot for Oakland, which has had five or more blocked shots in back-to-back games and held Rochester to just 32 percent shooting from the floor. Despite being held eight points under her season scoring average, the Warriors’ Sam Tomaschko was able to block four shots and is averaging five blocks per game this season. Oakland seniors Kirstie Malone and Lizzie Hafeli both scored their first points of the season scoring six and eight points respectively.

Monday’s game was the first of a five-game home stand for the Golden Grizzlies. The team will return to the O’Rena on Sunday for a game against Cornell from the Ivy League at 1 p.m. The game against the Big Red will feature a live video stream and live stats on OUGrizzlies.com.

Category: Campus Clips, Oakland Community College, Oakland University, Rochester College